M&L Installs New Audio System at First Baptist Church, Sevierville, Tenn.

With its roots embedded in the eighteenth century and the formation of the United States as an independent nation, the First Baptist Church (FBC) in Sevierville, Tenn., has been based in the city since its inception. From log cabins through various incarnations, as the church has grown it's acquired larger buildings to accommodate the congregation of the city as well as the large numbers of tourists who visit the nearby Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Scott Andrews, Associate Pastor of Worship at FBC says, “Our sound reinforcement system was seventeen years old and definitely past its best. A system from d&b audiotechnik had been highly recommended and we felt it would be ideal for our purposes.”

M&L Sound from Knoxville, Tenn., were the chosen installers. Sound Project Manager, Joe Hamilton explains the process. “We were initially contacted by the church to look into replacing their mixing console. During the site visit we also discussed many other issues they were having, one major one being the quality of the speaker system and lack of coverage. After attending a few finance meetings and a church-wide business meeting, we received a contract for the speaker upgrade as well as the mixing console. The reason for such a major system upgrade was the age of the original system and growth, and what the church wanted to achieve with the audio system.”

Hamilton went on to design the system along with some input from d&b audiotechnik US and FBC's Technical Services Director, Rich Mace. He opted for a primarily 10AL system with 27A-SUBs to support the low end, and a selection of loudspeakers from the xS-Series for fill and delay. “We had only done a few projects with d&b prior to this design but the audio quality and extensive installation line made it an obvious choice for this project. We opted for the install amplifiers, the 10Ds and 30Ds, as we'd used them once before and been impressed. The connectivity is perfect for installations.”

“The loudspeaker system consists of four main speaker hangs that contain seven 10AL cabinets per hang. There is a main L/R hang and then a L/R fill for the side stadium seating. The 8S boxes are placed along the front of the stage as frontfills while the 5Ss are deployed as under-balcony delays and the 10Ss are used for over-balcony delays and choir monitors. The subs are deployed in two hangs of three, partly to preserve the sightlines for the projection screen. They are located inbetween the main 10AL array and the fill 10AL array on each side. Cardioid 27A-SUBs were chosen to help keep energy off the stage.”

Hamilton liaised closely with Rich Mace. “Joe understood quite clearly our objectives and the challenges we needed to overcome. The capacity of the room is two thousand and we have three worship services: traditional, blended, and we also added a contemporary service during the installation. We plan to host more concerts and conferences in the future and one of the added bonuses of choosing a d&b system is that it is so well known and trusted in the touring industry. Despite the wider possibilities for the room it remains a house of worship and so the amplification of the choir and the spoken word were the primary considerations when we agreed the design.”

The size and shape of the balconies also required some imaginative thinking as Hamilton explains. “The room is fan shaped with padded pews for seating. There is stadium seating up each side with a large over-balcony and under-balcony area. Due to the amount of under-balcony seating we used quite a large number of 5S loudspeakers to get sound to every seat. There is diffusion and acoustic treatment throughout the room, and the ceiling is a combination of drop down drywall soffits and acoustic ceiling tiles. These drywall soffits caused us to have to use over-balcony delays to get high frequencies to the top rows of the balcony. I have to say that acoustically the room is very well controlled, but not overly absorbent.”

As with similarly busy venues, the FBC had to keep working during the installation. Andrews says, “The hall is used every Wednesday and Thursday night for rehearsals and then all day Sunday. All installation work began on a Monday morning, but had to wrap up by the end of day Wednesday to make sure everything was operational for Wednesday night. I couldn't be happier with the way the schedule was worked out and the care M&L took to meet our week to week needs during the install.”

To work around the needs of the church,” adds Hamilton, “we installed the new speakers alongside the old and reconfigured existing amp racks to allow space for installation of the new amps. This allowed us to wire all the inputs of the amps and power while not disturbing their scheduled events. It was very much a team effort: the support from d&b was great. Most of the items had to be painted white but there were no holdups; we ran into one issue with the rigging onsite and they overnighted us additional hardware to help us stay on schedule. And the church was just great to work with as well. They were really appreciative of all the efforts made by the M&L staff in getting the entire system installed as quickly as possible, while not disrupting normal activities in the room.”

“This has been a really positive experience,” concludes Andrews. “We are and continue to be, extremely happy with M&L and the service they provide. Feedback on the system has been more than complimentary from all concerned and, although there may be a perception that d&b is expensive I would beg to differ: I consider that we have received excellent value for money. You can't really ask for more than that, can you?”